I began my last post on Syria, from September 11, with a quip-like protest of sorts: that every time I finish writing about some wild and wooly development in the U.S. “Syria crisis” portfolio, another even weirder one comes along at a speedy clip whose evident purpose is to provide a safety net for the […]

It looks like California is heeding Via Meadia’s advice about capital-appreciation bonds, which many California school districts have been using to fund construction and other such projects. These poisonous bonds allow school districts to borrow money and delay payment for decades while the interest can balloon to ten times the number borrowed, and use of […]

An American Bar Association task force has released a report that includes some smart thinking about how to reform the ailing legal education industry. The suggestions include lowering the number classroom hours required for graduation, allowing students to earn educational credit for paid positions, and dropping tenure requirements for law school accreditation. Most important, however, was […]

There are 101 million people globally who suffer today from dementia, but by 2050 that number will have almost tripled to 277 million. That statistic comes from a new report by Alzheimer’s Disease International aimed at showing just how serious our long-term care challenges are. Reuters has more: Even now, the worldwide cost of dementia […]

Here’s a shocker: the latest predictions from the Obama administration have the Affordable Cart Act insuring only half the number initially expected. Reuters: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services now expects 11 million uninsured Americans to obtain coverage next year, down from about 22 million projected a year ago, according to the report, […]

It’s not just European countries that are less enthusiastic about the EU: a poll just released by the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) and the Italian Compagnia di San Paolo shows an unmistakable trend in Turkey: 44 percent of Turkish respondents said EU membership would be a good thing, down from 48 percent […]

On the eve of the new Iranian President’s first visit to the United States, the media is full of hopeful stories about a diplomatic ending to the nuclear disagreement. The New York Times reports that President Obama sent Hassan Rouhani a letter promising relief from sanctions if Iran would “cooperate with the international community, keep your […]

Two stories this morning, both from Reuters, provide more evidence of the costs of President Obama’s Syria non-policy.First, it appears that a sizable exodus of fighters from more moderate organizations to al-Qaeda-affiliated groups like the Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is underway in Syria’s north: “This is a […]

A senior election official was assassinated in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province on Tuesday, the first killing directly linked to next spring’s critical presidential elections. The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack on their Twitter feed. Then, in nearby Badakhshan province yesterday, Taliban fighters reportedly killed 10 police and kidnapped 16. Both of these attacks occurred in the […]

Two years after the Solyndra bankruptcy scandal, bad green energy investments are still dogging the Obama administration. The latest is Ecotality, which had manufactured charging stations for electric vehicles. It has just filed for bankruptcy and is preparing to auction off all of its assets. Apparently, the electric car market didn’t take off quite as […]